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Tart/sour = acids ?????

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Squatchy

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Nov 3, 2014
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Hi All.

Summer came upon us over night in Denver. We have had severe rain for many weeks in a row. Now it's sunny and hot with a boat load of humidity. Reminds me of Texas!

Any way I have a question.

I just made a 5 gallon batch of Pomegranate wine. My first shot at making wine. Pom juice is easily as much as honey for a 5 gallon batch. This is a wine how ever I did add some honey once fermentation slowed down to "near the end", just not a lot. So Pom juice and sugar. I used 71-B and Fermaid-O and kept my temps in the low 60's.

I like it and it shows lots of promise. It is how ever just a bit tart/sour in the finish. So I have a several part question, as I so often do.

Is sour and acidic the same thing? Or can you have a sour that doesn't read acidic? I would also ask the same question about tart. Although I have a hard time distinguishing the two. Maybe someone can give me a clearer word group to separate the two.

I did add 1 tsp of potassium carbonate to the 5 gallon batch a few days ago and it seems to have help some. I think!

If in fact the tart/sour is acidic what are the means to counter balance it without making it overly sweet? I am at 1010-1012 or so. I'm trying to step feed in small doses to keep it around there.

Will more potassium help? If so,, when is enough? If it's over done, what are the flavor faults?

Should I rack it and wait for the first drop out before I make any adjustments?

Thanks
 
From my understanding of it, tart/sour are pretty much the same thing, and that thing is acid. Different acids are probably going to taste slightly different, especially if it's an acid group on an organic compound, the variety there is where you're going to get some flavor differentiation.
Potassium Carbonate is a base, so it'll neutralize some of the acid, which should help reduce the tartness for you, but like EJM3 said, bases taste bitter to the human tongue, so too much will add a bitter flavor.

Personally, I like my meads sweet, with a solid tartness to them to help balance it out. But then I'm also a huge fan of sour beers so take that with a grain of salt.
 
AS long as you're not getting a bitter finish I think it's fine. Taken from the internet (so it must be right) :::"Sour" is a broad term that includes a range of tastes. For instance, we describe the unpleasant taste of spoiled milk as sour, as well as the sharp acidic taste of vinegars, and other tastes too. "Tart" is a subset of "sour" and is a narrower term which suggests acidic fruitiness.::: That sounds like as good an explanation as I could have come up with.

So... sour = bad tart = good :)

Keep in mind that aging will mellow out most things and referring to your "just made" comment I'm going to assume it's a young wine. However, I don't know what the lifespan of Pom wine is so... yeah.
 
mannye said:
AS long as you're not getting a bitter finish I think it's fine. Taken from the internet (so it must be right) :::"Sour" is a broad term that includes a range of tastes. For instance, we describe the unpleasant taste of spoiled milk as sour, as well as the sharp acidic taste of vinegars, and other tastes too. "Tart" is a subset of "sour" and is a narrower term which suggests acidic fruitiness.::: That sounds like as good an explanation as I could have come up with.

So... sour = bad tart = good :)

Keep in mind that aging will mellow out most things and referring to your "just made" comment I'm going to assume it's a young wine. However, I don't know what the lifespan of Pom wine is so... yeah.
Click to expand...



It's so "just made" I'm not sure yet that the yeast are done yet.
 
Well then we are jumping the gun. Let it sit for however long fruit wine (as if grapes weren't fruits right?) needs to sit and try it then.


Sent from my TARDIS at the restaurant at the end of the universe while eating Phil.
 
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